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cyano

Spring cleaning!

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Well it has been quite some time since I have posted on here so here we go. Sunday I decided to take the time and perform an annual cleaning of the equipment, sump, sand, rocks, refugium, and tank. I cleaned all the non calcium based algae off of the overflow and the votech power heads but I could not find my old Korelia pumps in time for me to willingly soak the power heads long enough to clean coralline off of them and honestly I am quite content with the overflow being covered in it so it will stay like that until I get OCD about it.

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While going to the lfs I decided to pick up a couple of coral frags one is this acan lord (no that is not cyano on the sand, it is the one red led on that side of the tank being picked up on my phone camera, also the lighting is much bluer in person than it appears here)
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I also picked up this little green monti cap
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I still have been skittish about adding new corals since I have lost so many over the years. I have never been successful with any sps besides montipora capricornis and have lost any acan lords I have attempted in the past. I know it sounds crazy but I have been wondering if maybe it had something to do with having a tank almost too clean. I have never registered any nitrates or phosphates on any test I have done so i have begun trying a supplemental program. I have started dosing Prodiobio's Reefbooster along with their biodigest and bioptim and I hope to see good results.

A year ago I traded my T5 lighting for a chiller. When I went to hook up this new piece of equipment I over tightened one of the fittings and broke it before I even got a chance to test it out. When I ordered the replacement fitting it was a newer model fitting and it did not fit. Needless to say I had yet to even make sure the chiller worked let alone did not leak up to this point. Well I have noticed lately a faster evaporation rate and a temperature that consistently stayed at 80 in the tank so I decided on Monday to finally find a fix for the chiller fitting. So after a little ingenuity I finally have the chiller hooked up, it does work, and the tank is now set to a firm 77 which I hope also helps me with my corals.

A few quick notes: I have officially had the two clownfish, yellowtail damsel, and branching hammer coral for 4 years, the yellow tang for 2 years, lawn mower blenny for 8 months (fat and happy he eats out of the water column as well as off the rocks,) and I have had my mandarin dragonnette for a year (also fat and happy I add more pods to the tank every 3 to 6 months)

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  1. melev's Avatar
    Thanks to updating us about your tank and sharing your thoughts. SPS do like pristine water, and yours may be ideal for them. You probably need to buy some frags from some local hobbyists to see that they aren't quite as hard as you've believed. The key is dipping to avoid introducing pests. Water quality is already being well cared for, and you've got the temperature locked in too. Perfect timing if you ask me.

    Feeding your acans once or twice a week and they will do well. The acans in my reef are doing very well, but the frags on the backside are merely holding their own with little growth. I need to make more of an effort to feed those and offer food from the backside of the reef a couple of times a week. That is probably going to help.

    It's so weird how LEDs create a disco effect on the sand.
  2. cyano's Avatar
    thanks for the input melev. what do you feed your acans? in the past when I have tried acans I tried to feed them small portions of fish food such as mysis at night but the cleaner shrimp i had back then was a grade "A" scavenger haha.

    I have only started to believe that my water may be lacking something that sps like because after a week or two they always retract there polyps and no longer show them. Not longer after polyp retraction they start bleaching at the base and once bleaching and tissue loss begins they are dead within a few days. I have tried them in all levels of the tank, changing flow rates, changing lights, with and without biobellets, and changing salts after each failure all with the same end result. My tank is older and more stable temperature wise then it has been in the past so I will give it another try after i see how these latest corals do.

    I have noticed though that since adding the chiller I have less evaporation now. It's amazing the difference that just 2-3 degrees makes
  3. melev's Avatar
    It could be your shrimp are destroying the coral to get to the food. Mini mysis and cyclop eeze are good foods for acans. But you have to defend the coral if the shrimp try to steal. I've observed a shrimp come up to a closed up coral, reach deep into the mouth of the coral and pull the food back out. It's very annoying. I have two peppermints in my 60g and they are destructive. If I were to move them to the 400g, my wrasses will eat them. What to do...

    All new SPS should be placed on the sandbed for the first week or two. Then you can move them up about six inches for another couple of weeks. By then you'll be able to place them where you like. Don't give up, they are gorgeous corals.
  4. cyano's Avatar
    Do you typically have to cut cubes into smaller portions?

    right now the only shrimp i have in the tank is a coral banded which is very timid and not an aggressive eater in my tank right now so I imagine that will help increase my chances of successfully feeding them with no damage coming to the corals.

    The part that frustrates me is that I had 4 that died in the sand bed, they had tissue loss and bleached and the longest any of those 4 survived was maybe 4 weeks. I really don't want to give up as being successful with those corals is my ultimate goal. Then again if I didn't want a challenge I would have done freshwater or just not gotten into the hobby at all.